brucedelta

I have never really sought out the Chinok (Cooper river king) before, but I really like Salmon so would like to try to find some this year while the season is on. Anyone notice it on the menu anywhere? Better yet a place I can get into on Sat night.

Disclaimer: Mty expirimantation so far has been with a oven that I already wish to replace, so I am not taking a big risk. Jeff slice NY page is the site that got me interested in this expirimantation. I had a semifunctional lock already and was able to disable it. UIsing a stone and the cleaning cycle of the oven I was able to get the stone to almost 800 deg (I have a infared thermometer so I believe my measurment accurate). Bottom line is that one can make great home pizza in a very hot oven, but much experimenting and work is required, it is continuing for me. Keep in mind the behavior of the oven changes in this mode. The oven light does not work. You can not just turn it off and back to normal it needs to cool down. The broiler is hotter than you ever imagined. At your local pizzaria it is common to see the guy reaching in the oven to check things out, a home oven is very different. The cavity ir small relative to commercial unit and you can not get anything very far away from that broil element. I reached in to try to adjust toppings after putting a pie in and had to pull my hand out immediatly, but the hairs on top of my arm were all burned off, so be carefull. I follow the common practice of using towels instaed of potholders as discussed on another thread. Well towels singe at this heat and are not thick enough. I thought the only thing to watch out for would be letting a loose end hit the lower element. My pizza peel now has professional looking char marks on it. The upside is fast and crispy thin crust pizza. Jeff on his page talks about using a tin foil tent to shield the burner and I think that is my next expiriment. I tried to make a white pizza with garlic, olive oil, and riccota cheese. The burner is to close for the olve oil and smokes it. My experience is that the less is best topping philiosiphy applies, otherwise the crust buurns before the toppings are done. Jeff suggests dealing with this by using a cold sheet pan to cool the stone, but I have not tried that yet. So you probably want to know how to modify the over, but I can offer very little help there. My oven already had a buggered up lock and I just removed a screw and the latch stays out of the way. I really am wanting to replace this oven and have been enquiring about modifying a new unit and all dealers say it voids the warrentee and is against the rules. They also privatly concede that it sounds cool to have high temp pizza. I recently attended a demo dinner at the local wolf distributor and discussed the idea. While it was agreeded that the high temp pizza was a good idea, they said they saw no easy way of doing it and the factory would not look favorably upon such a modification. So maybe I keep my old oven for this reason. I have two ovens and fear replacing only one will be a poor cosmetic choice. But I will probably be next trying high temp pizza again this week. Also keep in mind you heed about 1 hr for the oven to heat up.

We've only been to Five Guys once, the Center City one. It was an awesome fast-food burger. At least as good as any In-N-Out burger I've had. And of course the fries were far superior, though that's not difficult, as In-N-Out's, even when ordered well-done, still kind of suck. We didn't get them Cajun style, will try that next time. ← I am going to have to agree with dagordon here. I have never understood the myth of in-n-out burger. They are good and better than any big fast food chain, but I certainly put them in the same league as five guys which is also above any chain. I have only been to five guys 3 times (cherry hill and audabon) and had good burgers and excellent fries (gotta love a place that offers malt vinager). I find the small with fried onions/mushrooms and A1 to be about ideal. In any case I have a friend who owns several five guys (none local or ever visited by me) so I will ask him if the smashing is part of the training or misguided impromteu work by the grill man.

It seesm to be a problem only the first time it is loaded becasue it needs to get the pictures in the cache. The photos are high resolution so they take a while. At least I think that is the issue.

As an uncle of twins who will be 2 this summer I get to uniquly see two sides of the coin and the bottom line is I think it falls to the parents of the child. My niece and nephew are in general great dinning out babies as they generally have a happy disposition and can be easily entertained. But the reality is when we plan to go out their parents make sure they get appropriate naps and we select places that we will be in and out of in about 75 minutes or less. No matter how good a baby is, going over an hour is risking problems. There is only so much you can do and or bring with you to keep them entertained in a seat for over 1 hour. Babies will get cranky without a nap no matter what, and all parents are aware of this. When I see a couple who has clearly been touring or shopping all afternoon come into any restaurant with a baby, you just know it is going to be bad. My opinion is that any parent who brings their child to a multibelled restaurant without preperation is just a self centered jerk, and they are going to do what they want no matter what. As Rich has pointed out, if his kids ( who were too cute and very well behaved when I met them) act up then they take quick action to avoid a scene. I think that is an example of an attentive parent taking appropriate action. Clearly if it got to the point of a screaming 9 month old in Tinto, you were dealing with parents who just do not give a damn and are going to act in a self centered way no matter what. All reason is gone from their behavior, so there is no sense expecting anything more, thus it becomes up to the establishment to take action.

Again Mazel Tov, hopefully you are all ready for your parsha! I think Swanky Bubbles has a private room about the right size. Also I seem to recall two of the large picnic type tables at Amada in the back, but it is probably late to book that. Panorama has the wine cellar, but it may be too big for your group. And I remember reading and making a mental note that the Mushulu has a capability to handle large parties of 10 - 20 in a private area. -- Bruce Edited to add: I have not been to Victor Cafe in years, but I recall using the back upper room to handle a group semi privatly. Coupled with a Bat Mitzvah the singing could be fun.

Bzzt - I disagree. Electric coil is just a instance of radiant. In what you call radiant the coil is below or in some other surface, and therefore the coil can be manufactured in a way that optomizes performance. In a coil cook top you just have a heavy duty coil that is exposed and very durable. This large mass makes it slow to respond to tempature changes and that is why people do not like them. But, It still cooks via the same mechanisim as radiant. One could argue that it is conduction, but if you place a coil below the glasstop it would work just fine there also, therefore proving the primary mode to be radiant. For this reason I believe radiant and coil fall into the same catagory. If they are different then one could argue that a gas flame is distinct from a wood flame and have yet 5 catagories.

OK I give. 4 cooking surfaces? 1 - Fire based (gas, charcol, wood, etc) 2 - Induction electric 3 - Radiant electric (I include halogen in this group) 4 - ? I can not think of number 4 (I thought of steam, but it is not a cooking surface) V, I am sure you know this but to be fair in this context I think it needs to be acknowledged that stainless is in fact a poor thermal conductor, but a great cooking surface. That is why most good stainless is really clad cookware where some material with better thermal properties is sandwiched inside the stainless cladding.

I thought the same thing. The Tuna tartare I had a few weeks ago that I loved looked much like the salmon pictured here, but with traditional dark caviar instead of the salmon roe. I was there on a weeknight and Matt was behind the bar the whole time, but the first time I was there (opening night) had him out and about as far as I could see.

So I visited Johhny Hots yesterday and ordered the famed surf and turf. I had it with pepper hash and ketchup (no cocktail sauce offered, but horseradish and ketchup are available). I would have to rate it mostly a big yawn, not my cup of tea. The fish cake was inocent enough and relativly mild, but it was like having a pile of fishy mush on a nicely grilled hot dog. It has already been observed that a crispy fishcake could be an improvemet and I would agree. Oerall I would say not as gross as imagined, but not a miracle pairing either.

Funny this should come up today. I have never been to Johnny Hots and already have an appointment within blooks tommorow PM, so I was already planing on trying it out then. I have been debating if I would really go for the fishcake combo, but the picture Rich posted in the other thread is just not that appealing. Your picture makes it look much more appetizing! Edited to ask: If one normally eats Ketchup on a hotdog and cocktail sauce with a crabcake, then does this concoction warrent cocktail sauce and is it available?

I would second Ferry House as a excellent choice. If you want to make a celabratory evening of it you may wish to consider Seablue at the Borgata (1st choice) or Mia at Ceasers. If its not your $, then the $175 PP tasting menu (M Mina cookbook included) at SeaBlue could be a unique treat.

Some people, - HUH? My neighbor loves Nardis, I just don't see it. Anyway back too Sarcones. I stopped at the Rt 70 location last week. Very similar in look and feel to the first store. I tried the pizza and enjoyed it. I am not a huge fan of the sicilian style but get a hankeing every now and then. I liked the sauce as it had a nice spice to it and the crust tasted good. As I already said, I prefer thin crust in general, but when I feel like sicilian pie it will probably be from sarcones in the future.

I had Olive Oil flavor there last week. It really hit the spot as I was looking for something not to sweet. I got the impression they were not sure how the flavor would go over, but I gave it a resounding endorsement.

Decided to stop at Fuji again today since my wife said she was working late and I was passing through on the way home. At 6:20 I got the last seat at the sushi bar. The people next to me had traveled from Bucks county with their own chopsticks. Bringing your own chopsticks must be the thing to do these days since I observed two couples doing this last week when we were there. In any case it looked full the whole time and as I was leaving two parties walked in and it sounded like they were going to be turned away due to lack of reservation. So if you want to go make a reservation is my advice! Oh, the food. It certainly did not suck! The chef in front of me was working on something that looked like tuna with caviar, but I could not identify on the menu. Upon inquiery I was told it was tuna tartare and that it was not on the menu, and "did I want one" . I replied affirmative before the guy next to me offered a resounding endorsement, and It was delicious. I also really enjoyed the white tuna, after all it was the main reason I stopped by as I had a hankering for more after last week. Also enjoyed Sake, Ebe, & Hamachi.

I usually get to a customer site near to Tony Lukes once a week. I decided to do a personal johns/tony lukes comparison and alternated between them for a few weeks for lunch. For my taste I prefered Tony Lukes roast pork. The texture and flavor of the pork is more to my liking. Additionally I think the chese is much sharper so it stands out nicely. In the interest of fairness I will say all were ordered with Sharp Prov and no greens (much neater when eating in the car). Additionally I also always thought the Johns rolls were lackluster, but I now understand since I have only ordered a small. I have never had a steak from either place, but it is a small break that they push the pork orders to the front at John's.

I have timed 4 quats of tap water to boil in 6 minutes on my induction cooktop. This is relativly in agreement with other results I have seen quoted and induction is usually faster than gas. The big plus of induction is that on the same burner I can melt chocolate without using a double boiler or use a dutch oven to slow cook all day. On the other hand for the OP I have yet to see an induction range, only cooktops.

in any case, if this is the only complaint on opening night, i'd say they're in pretty darn good shape! ← They were indeed crumpled up on the table. I kind of thought reporting that as a problem will make the point that things were better than expected opening night. I think they were in good shape. I can not say I knew any of the staff, but some look familiar from the old place.

I can report that Fuji is now open!! Dinner only the first week. We were out doing errends and in the area so we decided to see if they were openand grab a late light meal. Had a little trouble finding it mainly because I had a preconcieved notion that it was down in the little walk next to the CVS. We were ready to give up looking when I spotted a sign. Started with Tuna Nutta ( tuna, cucumber avocado, white soy beans) and it was tasty. Scallops teriaki were tender and done just right. I am so used to this dish being overcooked everywhere that is was delicious to have a big tender scallop done correctly. Had some rolls and sushi and found the white tuna to be outstanding. My wife wanted the Jewpanise Roll (Peppered salmon, cream cheese, & ?). It was good, but not my thing as I have never compleatly warmed to cream cheese in my rolls. On the other hand the cooked squash was a nice treat we never experienced before. A little sweet it had a nice flavr that I was suprised to like. Finished off with a tasty asian pear tart. All in all I am looking to visit again. Then I will come prepared with wine and all. Said hello to Matt who seemed to be in good spirits. I did not count tables or such, but I would say it can hold twice what the old place could. Sushi bar wall full when we came in so we sat at a nice table next to the back windows. Decor was asian style woven woods with a small waterfall upfront. Wood tables with white linens made the room look very nice and calming. My only complaint was that the warm towels used to wipe our hads remained lying on the table until the plates were cleared. I am not sure why they did not leave the basket to put them back into, but that was removed when the towels were dispensed.

Since we are talking about laptopss going missing I will add some thoughts which I fell well qualified to offer sine I had a loptop stolen a couple of months ago when my car was broken into. I suspect the ipod sitting in the console atracted the bandit and finding a laptop bag was just a luckey break for some scum bucket. In any case I have become much more careful about hiding my ipod, but on to the laptop. For most people who really use their computer I suspect the physical and monetary loss of the unit is the least of the trauma that is to be felt. The two big issues are the data on the laptop and the potential for this data to fall into the wrong hands. I am in the IT business, so I suspect it was a lot less traumatic for me than it would be for an average user. 1) Data backup - I use a tool called Acronis that can back up a entire hard disk. It is easy to use and you can just boot from a CD and back the entire computer up to a USB external drive. I had a backup that was a few weeks old, and I was able to restore it to a different computer the next day while waiting for my car window to be replaced. Since I have a exchange server at work all my email was backed up on the server, so once I got the restored system going I was pretty much up to date. For anyone interested I would take a look at the following: Acronis Trueimage 2) Data security - I had no protection on this front and had to change all memorized passwords and ensure any data on the computer would not cause problems if it fell into the wrong hands. This was my major headache, but having my data back in hand helped identify what was at risk. I am currently trying a drive encryption package. The software I am looking at is the following: Truecrypt Since this is open source it may be a little complex for someone who is not computer literate, but there are similar commercial packages available. Bottom line I would encourage anyone with a laptop to think about what they would do if it were lost in advance. Paying over $1000 to replace a laptop is unplesant, but I would rate it was the least painful aspect of a laptop loss. -- Bruce

I have a Eurocare 260 that is close to 10 years old. I can report good things about the brand and would not hesitate to recommend it, if they have a size suitable for you. The other thing I can tell you is that there is never enough space for all the wine you will want to store so the bigger the better.

In what way can they be a plus? . . . Do they ever really work and stay meaningfully cool in a wide variety of situations where regular handles would not? In my experience, they simply don't work very well at not heating up. Sure, the handles on my 1 quart All-Clad saucepans don't get very hot when I'm making a little bechamel. But, then again, the cast iron handle on my Falk Culinair 1.5 quart sauteuse evasee doesn't tend to get very hot when I'm making a little bit more bechamel either. More to the point, however, the handles on both brands get hot of the pans sit on the stove doing a reduction for 45 minutes. I suppose the All-Clad's "stay cool" handles take a few minutes more to heat up, but this is not a meaningful difference in practical terms. Well, just to put your theory to a test, I put two saucepans about 2/3 full of water on the stove, covered them, brought the water to a boil and then turned the heat down to keep the water simmering. One saucepan was a Demeyere Sirocco, 2 liters. The other was a 1.5 quart Mauviel professional pan. The results: At 15 minutes, the Mauviel was really warm, and by 20 minutes, I could hold the handle just long enough to slide the pan off the heat. At 25 minutes, it was too hot to lift at all, although I didn't burn my hand by simply touching the handle. I turned the heat off at that point, and a half hour later, it was still too hot to hold. After more than an hour, I could still lift the Demeyere easily, and hold it more than long enough to carry it across the kitchen to the stove and empty it out. (Incidentally, not that anyone asked, but at 5 minutes, the lid handle on the Mauviel was too hot to touch. The lid handle on the Demeyere was still cool at 1 hour.) I'd say that's a meaningful difference. That is a meaningful difference, but unfortunately it's not a very meaningful test for a number of reasons: First, the handle on the Demeyere pan you're talking about is not a "stay cool" handle of the kind we have been describing. Are those handles hollow? The Sur La Table site describes them as "solid, cast 18/10 stainless steel." This works very well in this application because stainless steel has very poor thermal conduction properties. A solid, massive stainless steel handle will take a long time to heat up and may never heat up appreciably in the conditions of your experiment. A drawback of this design, however, is that once the handles do get hot (e.g., in the oven) they have accumulated a lot of thermal energy and will take an extra-long time to cool down. Anyway, the typical "stay cool" handle looks something like this, whereas Demeyere's handle looks like this -- completely different. As I said before, I'm not in love with welding as a method of handle attachment, but I think there's not much to worry about with respect to a smallish saucepan. ← Actually the mentioned Demeyer Siroco looks like this: and actually splits to disapate heat. I am not certain how effective they would be in your proposed test, but they look nice and are very comfortable, which is more than can be said about most stay cool. I use an induction cooktop so only cast iron gets to hot to hold on the cooktop. The Demeyer never overheats on the cooktop and the lecruset has a stay cool plastic handle. I tend to like towles for holding anything hot.

You were of corse 100% correct. I thought the metal tab just pushed the nipple to hold it in place, but you got to get the nipple in the hole. It is a little tougher to do then expected, but I guess the tab will start bending to match the bowl and it will become easier. For those looking for a mixer review I guess I can say the KA 600 seems nice, I like it so far. We had a Oster Kitchen Center that did allot of things poorly. While the Food processor and blender were probably passable the mixer on the Oster sucked and I just seemed to have a hate of this machine that I will never get over. I say this because I doubt I am a critical shopper for a mixer as I do not make bread without a bread machine (so far, that may change now) or anything that would be taxing on a mixer. Bottom line is this unit is well reviewed and it seems very well put together, it mixes nicely and most importantly it is not the stupid Oster. It is noticebly heavier when I go to put it in the cabinet, that is what I see as the big downside. So far I have made almond macaroons, cornbread pudding, and a triffle with it and am very happy. It cleans up easy, and is user friendly once you know to put the nipple in the hole, so I like it thus far.

I bought one of these thermoworks units a while ago when it was posted. But if anyone wants a cheap infared thermometer check out www.woot.com today only. For those who have never heard of woot, they sell one item a day and charge $5 for shipping. When they sell out they are done for the day. This unit it 18 + 5 shipping. I have no idea if it is any good, but it is cheap. Spec follows: Features Test From -27 to 230° F Accurate to +/- 2.5° Sleek Compact Design Easy To Use Keychain Attachment Digital Display Specifications: Measurement Range: -33 to 110°C (-27 to 230°F) Operating Range: 0 to 50°C (32 to 122°F) Accuracy: +/- 2.5% (2.5°C) Resolution: 0.2°C (0.5°F) Response Time: 1 second Distant to Spot Ratio: 1:1 Emissivity: 0.95 fixed Update Frequency: 1.4 Hz Dimension: 13 x 128 mm Wave Length: 5 um to 14 um Weight: 45.0 g Battery: 2 LR44 Batteries

We ate at Osteria last thursday for the first time. Went early (5:50) with no reservation and probably underdressed. I had been in the city late and decided to pick up my wife and go to dinner. We walked in and as the front desk was debating if we could have a table or sit at bar, a call came in cancelling a reservation and providing us with a table. Ordered a Pinot for the Mrs and a lambic ale for myself, and asked to start with a lombarda pizza. We were told that the kitchen prefers compleate orders, so we asked the server to come back and then compleated the order. I am not sure how to react to this as I think ordering a starter and then deciding on the rest of the meal is a nice thing for the customer so I was a little suprised by this, but it was no big deal as we were ordiring relativly light. Pizza Lombarda was very good, light and flavorful. The egg added a richness to the pizza that made it a big winner. It reminded me of pizza we had driving from Nice to Monte Carlo, we stopped at some unkown place in a unknown coastal town for lunch, and ordered a pizza where they cracked a egg on top tableside. In any case we enjoyed it and have fond memories of the trip and that drive in particular, so this pizza evoked those memories. For dinner we had "casoeula" braised pork ribs and sausage with cabbage and a pasta special, which was postage stamp (their description, not mine) pasta with a creamy cheese filling. I liked the pasta as the filling was much more flavorful than your standard cheese ravioli, and the pasta shell was delicate and well textured. It was another winner. I only had a bite of the pork, and found that to be flavorful but I am no cabbage fan. So overall I would say we will go back!